Abstract |
Once released in 1979, 『Hwandangogi』has been located at one of the controversial
issues in Korea. Historians in academia has mainly led negative views on this book.
According to them, the writer, Kye Yonsu, was nothing but a fictitious character. Of
course, he was a real person in history. Nonetheless, the main points on their criticism is
related to its composition date as a historical record. They have claimed that the book was
written in either 1979 or 1911. Such perspective has played a key roles in treating it as a
forgery. However, both claims can be contested as follows. First, the book was not
published in 1979, because some contents were already shared by the independence
activists in 1920s. Also, the song, called, 'OA', only found in this book, was already widely
sung by them, with the title, ‘DanGunSinGa’. Second, if it was written in 1911, any content
should have been contained in other records published before it. Still, a lot of its materials
were already discovered in books written hundreds of years ago: the Chosun period. For
instance, 『Hwandangogi』 contains historical narratives about Buru, son of Dangun. He
was found in the history books such as『Donggukyeokdaechongmok (Table of contents of
Korean History century)』 and 『Dongsabongi (Annals of the Korean History)』
transcribed in the 17th and 18th century. In this regard, the claim – 『Hwandangogi』is
entirely a forged book – is not the right approach to research history.
key words : Hwandangogi, pseudograph(=false writing), HongManJong, LeeJongHwi,
Table of contents of Korean History, Annals of the Korean History |